By Are you engaged? Congratulations. It’s important you get yourself bask in all newly engaged glory. Enjoy some champagne, and don’t panic. Wedding planning can be overwhelming. By tackling some wedding planning tasks early in your engagement, you’ll have a huge advantage.
You don’t need to feel overwhelmed by this list of wedding planning to-dos. Here is a clear guide that is important to get all your tasks accomplished early and before time. This way, the rest of your wedding planning experience will go smoothly.
For instance, the top priority and very first thing to do includes setting the budget. Get yourself a wedding budget spreadsheet before you make the guest list. Every guest on your list costs a finite number of dollars in venue space, rentals, food and drink. It is critical you should know from the outset how much is your wedding budget before you begin to invite guests, book vendors, and buy goods.
We’ve gathered experienced wedding industry pros to share which wedding planning tasks you should tackle within the first three months of your engagement. For your convenience, we ranked them in order of priority.
Prioritize your Partner & enjoy the most beautiful
It is very important to prioritize ways that you can enjoy the most beautiful time of your life. You are engaged to each other once, so take all the time to attend events specialized for newly engaged couples. You can also plan your date nights to ensure you are spending some quality time off from wedding planning and appreciating your love for one another.
Size your engagement ring
Get your gorgeous stunner engagement ring sized on your ring finger and make sure it fits. There are some tragic stories in the wedding industry of people losing their beautiful rings down the drain, at the parking, at the gym etc., as their ring didn’t fit well. Don’t let this happen to you.
Sometimes you cannot get it down immediately; order some Ring Snuggies in the meantime: a quick fix that will keep that attractive ring in place. In the event of the unexpected, ensure your ring. Few get their insured through the bank, under personal property insurance. Spending a few dollars can save you from so much trouble.
Create Budget List First, Then Guest List
For your planning to start off on the right foot and minimize your stress levels, it is recommend tackling the two planning silos as it is believed the most challenging and will test a couple’s love. These are the budget and guest list.
Whenever you make a purchase or make a deposit, you should know how much money you have available. Who is going to contribute to the budget? And, how do you want to spend that money? You shouldn’t put yourself in a situation where you have to cut corners because you didn’t lay the financial foundation early enough.
Using your budget, you can estimate the number of guests you can invite to your wedding. It might be necessary to set clear boundaries with your parents or other family members who are making a financial contribution about how many of their friends can attend your wedding. You and your fiancé might have to draw a line with groups of people like children, co-workers, or third cousins.
Whether you are planning to host 30 or 300 guests, set your limit early in the planning process. Make sure that anyone who has influence over the guestlist understands your expectations and how many invites you are giving them.
Set a Date Range
Before you know your exact wedding date, create your budget list. There are many factors to consider, including the availability of your dream venue. In the meantime, settling on a general date range, such as “Summer 2024” or “next fall,” will help you get your planning process going and give it some structure. Plus, you’ll have an answer when all your friends and family start asking, “So, when is the big day?”.” Additionally, you’ll get an idea of how long the planning process will take. If you only have 90 days to plan your wedding, it will differ greatly from if you have a full year to do it.
Hire a wedding planner today!
A wedding planner should be your top priority as no one will guide you better than them. As they will help you in planning the wedding from the beginning to the end. Many have unadvertised venues already in their back pockets and negotiated discounted rates with vendors. It’s better you book soon so as to avoid not only money but also sanity.
Begin Your Venue Search
No one wants to find out that your dream venue is fully booked for the next 12 months after falling in love with it? Venues tend to fill up their calendars a year in advance. If you want the first pick of venue or have a non-negotiable wedding date, start your venue search early. Schedule those site visits as soon as possible.
Organize your Wedding Details
As you proceed to plan your wedding, you are going to collect endless ideas, checklists, venue and vendor favorites, photos inspiration, pricing guides, contracts and more. It is better if you figure out an organizational system early so that you can keep track of all your wedding-related collateral. It can be your Google drive, Dropbox, a dedicated pinterest board or wedding binder, a new calendar app, a colorful coded spreadsheet or a combination of these systems.
To reduce your stress, it’s preferred to organize everything before you begin to actual planning process. With your all-important wedding decisions in hand, you’ll be ready to run.
Hunt for your dream dress
It is a favorite part of every bride to start looking for a dress. Bridal dresses are always made-to-order, rather than something you can buy off the rack. Usually, they take around eight months to be made. Also, you need to get the alterations to be done on time. You may also look online on platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest as these are also the best places to get started with great ideas. You will also come across designers, and a similar trend is running in the market. You may create a list of brands you want to explore and get yourself appointments with them.
Plan your wedding stationery
Save the dates sent 6-9 months before your wedding. Nonetheless, with weddings taking place seven days a week thanks to the wedding boom, I highly recommend that engaged couples get started on their very first wedding stationery piece as soon as possible.
Save the dates are more than just a way to announce your engagement to family and friends. They will also give guests plenty of time to clear their schedules. Saving the dates is an enjoyable and creative part of planning your wedding. This is a nice break from all the vendor meetings and other details.
Dealing with wedding planning stress? Anxiety begone; get ample wellness advice & expert tips.
